Neil Saunders at Conlumino

One of the worrying signs from this update is the extent to which some parts of the international business have deteriorated: growth in Asia has slowed substantially while European sales have declined. While there are understandable reasons for this, it does suggest that Tesco is now a company fighting battles on many fronts. For a management team that has been weakened by departures, this is a highly uncomfortable position and is one that, if not addressed, could leave resource, talent, investment and focus stretched too thinly.

Caroline Gulliver at Espirito Santo

The surprise came in international profit, which fell 17.1% led by a 28% fall in European profits to £171m. Tesco blames the fall on the deteriorating macro-economic environment and their decision to clear stock. For the outlook Tesco has commented that UK trading margins are likely to be similar in the second half as the first. The global macro-environment is also likely to be the same challenge (so Europe is likely to remain weak) and in Korea, the change to opening hours will hit full-year profits by £100m. All together we think consensus forecasts could continue to edge down.

Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst

There has been a lot of focus on "the Tesco UK recovery" ahead of these interims but the bigger problems are emerging overseas. It says a lot about the sheer scale of Tesco that it can absorb a potential £100m profit hit in South Korea from the restrictions on shop opening hours without blinking, but that sort of setback doesn't help. Nor does a surprisingly big profits fall in Europe, or the stubbornly high losses at Fresh & Easy in the US.

Philip Dorgan at Panmure Gordon

Despite the amount of capital that has been absorbed (by Fresh & Easy) and the losses that it has generated, we suspect that if it were announced today that the US was to be closed or sold, then Tesco shares would rocket. This may not be the best long-term outcome, but if it is to remain part of the group then we would expect to see very compelling evidence that this makes sense. We think that the deadline is the prelims in April.

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